Eye Contact
by Celyn Rhys
Summary: Sakura has thusfar lived a normal and boring life - something she used to be more than comfortable with. However, when she encounters Sasuke's older sibling, she realises that being unspecialised is borderline suicidal. Itachi/Sakura. One shot.


**Author's Note: **I wrote this for a drabble prompt over at Livejournal. It's quite short, but let me know if you think I should continue it!

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When Sakura was a young child, whose only real trouble was deciding which colour crayon to use when scribbling in unmasterful pieces of artwork for the academy display, she had only just started to become aware of the other clans. An intricate network of secretive families that ultimately worked for the greater good of Konoha, but were terribly possessive of their so called 'blood line limits'.

However, at the tender age of 6, all she was really interested in was cutting off her doll's hair and trying to attach it to her own in a futile attempt to make it longer. Long hair was _important_. Sakura didn't care that some families like dogs an extraordinarily amount, or that another clan had a thing for shadows and doers. The politics of Konoha bored her to tears, and having to stand in one place whilst her mother chatted to a stranger on the street stirred up a fierce tantrum of gigantic proportions.

At that time in her life, she was glad her family was what was considered 'normal'. Well, for shinobi, anyway. The Harunos had no blood line limit to speak of, nor did they form any close bonds with a line of summons. Techniques to learn were taken up purely by fleeting interest with no set element or pattern. Purely and perfectly plain, and that was just the way she liked it.

The only other family that she was even marginally nosy of, was the Uchiha clan. And even then, it was only for the sake of a single, crush-worthy classmate. It mattered not that Sasuke barely ever spared neither her nor Ino a second glance. Her goal in life had been set, and at the tender age of 7, she was in love.

Or so she thought, anyway.

For some strange reason, Sakura had always assumed that Sasuke was an only child. Doted on and spoiled by two adoring parents, just like she herself had been (and still was, to a certain extent). It came as quite the unnecessary shock, then, when she discovered that her love-interest had an older sibling. A brother. A genius. Itachi, or so she had heard him referred to as.

He was a legend amongst the academy, although at the same time, hardly anyone remembered him. He progressed through the years so rapidly, that it seemed like it only took a blink of an eye for him to graduate. Although Sakura's own intelligence was considered reasonable - top of her class, but still _in_ her class and not more advanced lessons - she was more than a little humbled to learn that there was indeed a bar to be met.

And she herself would never reach it, she knew. Even _Sasuke_ himself was struggling, apparently. There was a lot to be said for a league of greatness that had competition. Compared to them, she just just _plain_. Normal.

Boring.

She had met Itachi, once. Well, met in the vaguest sense of the word. It had been more like an awkwardly brief few moments of eye-contact, and then he'd moved on. Sasuke had gotten the highest marks in the class (the second being Sakura herself, although when was second best _ever_ remembered?), and his brother had graced them all with his presence to congratulate him.

In class.

Well, geniuses were often said to be eccentric. Exactly _how_ eccentric would not be made clear to her until several months later, however, when Sasuke would come into school an orphan and permanently cursing the face that he used to covet so dearly. Itachi's eyes were blank and lifeless, yet the muscles that surrounded them coordinated into identifiable expressions perfectly fine. When he smiled, it never reached his gaze somehow - at first she just assumed it had gotten lost somewhere between his nose and his eyebrows.

His eyes were where the blood line limit took place, or so she was told, anyway.

The next time Sakura was 'graced' with Itachi's presence was several years in the future, when she had a lot less hair and a lot more interest in the world around her instead. When he was a rogue ninja who was feared and despised by all of Konoha. _Especially_ his brother, who probably loathed his very existence enough to match the combined foul moods of every resident in the Hidden Leaf 10 years over.

For that, Sakura could never forgive him.

The trouble with being normal, though, was that against someone like him...she didn't stand even a fraction of a chance. Again, their eyes met, and instead of awkwardly looking away, she met them, head on.

Although in days of yore she often thought this was a brave thing to do, against an Uchiha, it was downright suicidal.

And yet... she had survived.

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**The End.**

I'm labelling this as complete for now, but I wouldn't mind writing more for it if anyone wants it.


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